Monitored bomb plot defused

From combined dispatches

BUDAPEST — Hungarian police arrested three Arabs, including the spiritual leader of an Islamic community in Budapest, and suggested yesterday they had plotted to bomb the country’s new Holocaust museum during a visit by Israeli President Moshe Katsav.

An aide to Mr. Katsav and Israeli diplomats said the president was the target of the purported conspiracy. One Israeli analyst suggested that the plot might have been motivated by Israel’s assassination last month of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder of the Islamic militant group Hamas.

Although Hamas has vowed revenge against Israeli leaders, Hungarian police said they found no link to Hamas in the Budapest plot. They also denied a link between Mr. Katsav’s visit and the planned attack.

“There is no connection whatsoever between today’s official visit by the Israeli president and the police action taken this morning,” National Police Commissioner Laszlo Salgo said yesterday.

For months, authorities monitored phone calls by one suspect, a 42-year-old Palestinian dentist who was a naturalized Hungarian citizen, to acquaintances “to get explosives,” police Lt. Col. Attila Petofi said.

During one call, “he asked an acquaintance to use the explosive to blow up a Jewish museum,” Col. Petofi said.

The only permanent Jewish museum in the capital is the Holocaust Memorial Center to be inaugurated by Mr. Katsav tomorrow, the anniversary of the day that Hungary’s pro-Nazi regime started rounding up Jews to confine them in ghettos.

The two Syrians were charged with preparing for a crime against property, he said without elaborating.

The arrests were made as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon arrived in Washington to try to win U.S. backing for a plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank in exchange for expanding five large West Bank settlement blocs.

Initial Israeli assertions that Mr. Katsav was the target led to speculation that the conspiracy was possible retaliation for the March 22 assassination of Sheik Yassin.

After Sheik Yassin was killed by Israeli helicopters, new Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said Palestinian militants were duty-bound to kill Mr. Sharon and other Israeli leaders.

Mr. Katsav was informed of the plot as he met with Hungarian President Ferenc Madl in Budapest, officials said.

After that meeting, Mr. Katsav told reporters, “I trust in the Hungarian security forces, and I trust in the Israeli security forces. I jokingly told President Madl that it would be better if he stays three steps away from me.”

Mr. Katsav, a veteran member of Mr. Sharon’s right-wing Likud Party, arrived yesterday for a three-day visit to Hungary.

Despite his background, he has come to be seen as a moderate, recently offering to hold talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad and holding out the possibility of a role in the peace process for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who has been shunned by Mr. Sharon.

The post of president in Israel is largely ceremonial, although the incumbent often can wield political influence during visits abroad.